A comment to the local Wiltshire Transport Plan consultation:

I strongly agree with the target to increase rail passenger numbers by 50% between 1999 and 2010 but I don't understand how Wiltshire County Council hope to achieve this if the TransWilts service is withdrawn under the new Greater Western Franchise

Answer

The target will be reviewed if rail services are reduced ....

What's the point in setting yourself targets if you're going to change them in the light of changing circumstances such as our collective failure to do enough to convince "the powers that be" - so far - to retain the service? 

Partly as a response of this comment, I've contacted appropriate elected members of Wiltshire County Council (primarily those along the route of the railway) and I've had a handful of responses so far - mostly very encouraging, though there were one or two disappointing elements;  it seems that the threat to service was new news to one of them (which rather shows that all the publicity has only had a patchy effect), and one of them asked me in what capacity I was writing.  However mostly very encouraging.

Sometimes I do question whether there's a more general interest or I'm whistling in the wind against the silent majority.   I've concluded that's not the case;   we've had over 800 different visitors to this obscure prviate website from UK users (I've excluded overseas and automated contacts), and well over 100 of them have signed up to the petition;  the proportion signing up is slipping, simply because it's now somewhat hidden in the mass of material as I try and keep it up to date.  But there's only a tiny proportion of interested parties who DO get involved with web searches, who look at a URL when they see it in the paper ...and going along to the meetings of other groups or talking to users you find there's less that 50% of them actively on line.  Goodness - a long answer to a few words of wondering, Nick!